Emilia's Crafted Pasta (St. Katharine Docks) — Restaurant in London

Just a stones throw from Tower Bridge lies a waterside hub of shops and restaurants in a stunning dockside setting. We visited Emilia’s Crafted Pasta restaurant in St Katharine Docks where the shining sun was glistening over the water.

Making the most of the good weather we decided to dine Al Fresco at Emilia’s Pasta. For an area so busy, it still had an amazing calmness about it all which we absolutely loved. Although you are a little squished in with other guests outside it just adds to the intimate and peaceful atmosphere.

The staff were very friendly and helped me choose a full bodied red wine to go with my meal (Convivale Primitivo IGT £5.50 a glass). My friend opted for a refreshingly gorgeous Peach Bellini (£8).

For starters we chose the Finely Sliced Bresaola with Rocket and Parmesan Salad (£8) and the Homemade Burrata with Toasted Ciabatta with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (£7). I have one word to describe the Burrata and that is INDULGENT! If you love your mozzarella then you will love this fresh Italian cow cheese made from mozzarella and cream. Paired with the olive soaked ciabatta it was an extremely rich yet moreish starter. The finely sliced Bresaola was an absolute delight and the salt crystals flaked over it gave it that extra edge. It went surprisingly well with the tasty rocket and parmesan salad.

We loved the simple and authentic menus with little drawings and annotations of the different styles of pasta they serve with their dishes. All pasta is homemade on site, along with freshly made dough kneaded to make their most gorgeous breads. Fresh is the best!

We chose the Veggie Homemade Parmesan, Pecarino and Basil Pesto Casarecce (£11) and the Homemade Creamy Walnut Sauce with Chestnut Mushroom (£10.50). The fresh pesto in the first dish was absolutely amazing and, unsurprisingly, homemade! The winner for the mains was the Creamy Walnut Sauce pasta. It had so many amazing flavours with the combination of walnuts, cream and the mushrooms!

With just five desserts to choose from, along with a combination of digestifs, coffees and teas, you can tell the restaurant is about quality not quantity. We chose the Salted Caramel Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream (£6) and the Emilia’s Special (£6). The brownie was very smooth and not too rich, and a touch gooey on the inside and the accompanying ice cream was so creamy and delicious.

The Emilia’s Special was a HUGE dessert! We would probably recommend two people to share this after having two courses, but needless to say we managed to finish it! We loved the creaminess of the vanilla ice cream with the honey and the crushed amaretti and cantuccini biscuits really topped it off.

We loved this little Italian restaurant in St Katharine Docks. The food was fresh and flavoursome and the menu is kept simple. If you find yourself taking a beautiful stroll along the dock, make sure you find time to indulge yourself in some fine Italian...

Not able to understand all these high ratings. Bad experience, will not recommend, because according to me, my GDPR and consumer laws have been violated while the restaurant took payment due to a faulty machine.

Most importantly, the card machine did not bleep out the customer card info the day we visited and paid. I noticed because we asked for the receipt and saw the entire card details staring back at us on the receipt which they made us sign to keep stacked for their records in plain sight. To me that is in direct violation of UK laws, potentially for every single person who paid via the same machine that day (and any other day where unbleeped card details on the receipts were printed and kept).

When I complained about this, they returned the only receipt copy to me and directed me to some person on the internal team who was not very helpful to me, and told me to continue the resolution via email. And very poor response times I must say. I didn’t even get a proper response for more than a month for why this happened until I followed up a zillion times even after escalation of the issue with the founder.

On a different note, the second you get your table, the staff immediately remind you that your time there is limited. Maybe they should put a clearer sign on the outside instead of making customers feel unwelcome right at the outset.

The food at this outlet could do better on strength of flavors. We had 2 pastas - with a tomato and a pesto base.

The restaurant manager was relatively nice and tried to help about the issue, but internal complaint resolution really sucks here on the whole.

Edit: The founder finally responded with the root cause and apologized after I followed up AGAIN, so kudos to that. Adding a star to my...

I dreamed about Emilia's recently. It's that good. Spent a week in the neighborhood in October but didn't eat here until Sunday, just two days before I left. Went back Monday. Almost went back for Tues lunch but it was too tight with my schedule. But I almost risked it (and should have, in retrospect. Had plenty of time). First meal was a simple lunch of the lamb ravioli in a light butter sage sauce. Made to order right there. Amazing. Came back the next night and had the burratta (creamy heaven), the amazing Bolognese (rich and velvety and salty with cheese), and the best tira misu I've ever had. A nice glass of house red wine and a couple Limoncello shots topped it off just right. The staff was also very friendly (sat at the bar/kitchenside both times). Even the guy cooking on my second visit went out of his way to talk to me and happily answered my many questions. Everyone seemed happy to be there, which is always a good sign. They worked well together, even with a new guy being trained. In my recent dream I found myself in St. Katherine's Dockyards. When I realized where I was my first thought was "I can go to...